Who will win the fight of being the No. 1 platform in 2021? How to stay on the top of the list in 2021? The honor to win the badge of the best social media site. In the last couple of years, we have seen a significant shift of people from one platform to another.
With so many big names in the game nowadays, today, we will be discussing the top-rated social media websites. It will be an exciting read, so buckle up while we roam you around platforms with a new perspective.
There will be several factors which we will be discussing against the top highly-rated websites and platforms. This is a never-ending fight. But it’s a good fight that brings out the best of the competition in the tech world.
We get to make more and more features by the developers working on these sides. People switch from platform to platform in search of new features and stick around if they find anything interesting. Or if not, they simply move on.
We will be discussing some platforms like Clubhouse, Facebook and its subsidiaries, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, and WhatsApp.
We will be discussing the rise and fall of these platforms. Things that made these platforms unique and updates made people hate the platform and leave it for something new, something crazier than ever.
The Social Media Hype
Ari Balogh, the Chief Technology Officer at Yahoo, stated that Social Media is not a destination; it is a dimension (Source: NYT, Bits). Social Media is being used by all the businesses to influence the customer perception and increase the sale.
Social Media is also being used for maintaining the online presence. These platforms are becoming more and more refined day by day, and their online footprint means business to them.
Not only businesses but now people of all ages are also using social media platforms to connect with their long-lost friends and relatives.
With so many languages spoken in the world, these social media platforms are available in all languages and help people to connect in a virtually borderless world.
There are no boundaries and no limitations, and you can add and subscribe or follow influential people from anywhere in the world.
All in all, it is estimated that early 3.6 billion people are now active on social media platforms. And please believe me when I say that 5G will get these numbers to a new height which we might not have imagined.
Social media will help the dream of globalization come true. Let’s begin by seeing
Who is on the top?
The survey conducted by H. Tankovska to search for the most active social networks in 2021 declares that Facebook is the most used social platform in 2021. Before getting into the fancy details, here are some of the essential facts:
- This survey also confirmed that the subsidiaries of Facebook are in the top 10 list of the most used social media platform.
- Facebook is the only social media platform with its three subsidiaries to have more than 3 billion active subscribers.
- But there was a new player in the industry. This social media platform got wild so fast that this growth is not comparable to any other social media platform. It’s called Tiktok.
- A platform that helped many to be famous. This is the platform that helped many to be the stars they always wanted to be.
- With a slogan of “become the star, you want to be,” this video content-based social media platform is now going up the ladder at a swift pace.
- Since its launch in 2016, the app is now trending in the 7th position with 689 million active users.
With a net worth of $86 billion in 2020, Facebook is still on the top of the most used social media platforms. It doesn’t matter what field of life you belong to, and there is always something for you to see and follow on Facebook.
Be it an interesting discussion group or a technical page you find interesting. Everything is there for you. There is no limit to what amount of surfing you do. It’s all just out there.
Facebook is one of those places which makes you have an online life. The one other than the physical one you have. Facebook is a multipurpose platform that provides you with many services at the same time, such as:
- Financial services.
- Brand making and marketing.
- Entertainment.
- Live discussions.
It covers every aspect of your life, and almost every new and old business is trying to start spreading their digital footprint using highly targeted Facebook ads feature.
YouTube
With a net worth of $19 billion in 2020, it is the first video social media platform. There was nothing interactive in it other than the comments viewers leave. But it grew fast and now is in the 2nd position in the top 6 most used social media platforms.
With its 2 billion subscribers, it is the primary video-oriented social media platform. It is used by everyone of any age living anywhere in the world.
YouTube is a video platform that lets you grow yourself in the virtual world by allowing the world to see your content. It can be any of the following:
- Travel
- Food
- Beauty
- Teaching
- Health care
- Product review
- Content creation.
YouTube helps you to make your channel and let it spread out. If a vast majority of people like your content, then YouTube helps you earn as well. It systematically places advertisements between your videos, and you earn through them every time the ad is played.
And here is the most controversial social media platform of 2021. WhatsApp! With a net worth of $5 billion in 2020, it has an active base of 1 billion users. It is way ahead of Facebook messenger, maybe because of its easy usage and user-friendly interface.
WhatsApp became controversial when they declared that they had changed their security settings in Jan 2021 and they would be able to read anything and everything. A huge amount of people left immediately and switched to other platforms.
But WhatsApp managed to hold its share in the market. It is not an advertisement-based social media marketing platform but still uses it via Facebook page integrator.
Instagram, the subsidiary of Facebook. If you have a Facebook account and you are looking for a picture-only social media platform, then Instagram is for you. With its nearly 1 billion active user base, this picture-based social media platform is the new fashion industry.
With its live sessions, boomerang, and other camera filters, you can enjoy having the best pictures of yourself now and then.
It is the only picture-based B2B model where you can connect with countless potential buyers. With most of its users under 35 years of age, this platform is a goldmine for marketers if used correctly.
With a net worth of $ 1.1 billion, WeChat is trending in 5th place among the most used social media platforms. Owned by a tech giant in China, WeChat is the most popular Chinese application.
With its QR scanning feature, it is used by 90% of china’s population. WeChat is one of the ways used by Chinese people to do business with the foreign world.
TikTok
Well, it’s the social media platform for Gen Z. It is known for its short video making with its mission to inspire the creative actor in you and bring joy. The slogan Tiktok used was “be the actor you wanted to be.”
With a net worth of $35 billion and an active subscriber base of 689 million, Tiktok, with its short video format, got quickly famous among the Gen Z. Multiple attempts were made to ban this app, but it never stopped growing.
If you want to connect and target Gen Z, Tiktok can use and sell your products. As of January 2021, the time consumed by a user on Tiktok exceeded the time users consume on Facebook. This is alarming for Facebook.
Bottom Line
With the stats mentioned above, it is clear that Facebook is the leading platform, but Tiktok is following it, and some social media experts see these two platforms fighting for the first position shortly.
Most of these platforms are built in the United States and have more than 100 million users. But there are European, Japanese, and Chinese social media platforms that are spreading fast.
With all these fancy statistics and details, I am interested in knowing how you would choose to invest your time and look for ads?
